OTTAWA — The federal government is failing to keep its promise to care for veterans, Canada’s auditor general declared on Tuesday as she called for a real plan to ensure ill and injured ex-soldiers aren’t forced to wait months, or even years, for the support they need.
Karen Hogan’s scathing indictment followed the tabling of a report in Parliament that found disabled veterans continue to face unacceptably long wait times and delays in finding out whether they qualify for federal assistance and benefits.
“I’m really left with the conclusion that the government failed to meet a promise that it made to our veterans, that it would take care of them if they were injured in service,” Hogan said at a news conference Tuesday in Ottawa.
“This has a real consequence on the well-being of our veterans and their families.”
Hogan’s report echoes warnings and complaints from veterans advocates and others that delays in the processing of such claims can have a significant effect on disabled veterans and their families by preventing access to treatment and financial assistance.
But at a separate news conference, Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay acknowledged the need to do more to help Canada’s veterans, while essentially dismissing Hogan’s findings.
Calling the auditor’s report a “snapshot of a point in time,” MacAulay presented his own figures on the size of the backlog, pointing to them as proof that the government’s approach is working.
“We’re on the proper path, as I indicated previously, to make sure that we deal with this appropriately and to put the backlog where it needs to be,” he said.
“I can assure you we have the process in place and we will do that.”
There have been several recent government plans designed to ensure veterans aren’t forced to wait months and sometimes years for Veterans Affairs Canada to process their disability claims.
Those initiatives were in response to growing anger and frustration from former service members, veterans advocates and others as wait times have continued to grow, resulting in more than 40,000 unprocessed applications.
The measures in question include the hiring of hundreds of temporary staff over the past few years, as well as efforts to cut red tape and lean more heavily on digital tools.
While Hogan in her report noted the introduction of those measures, she found many are still in development and Veterans Affairs was unable to actually assess the impact of those in place.
The auditor general took particular aim at the Liberal government’s hiring of hundreds of temporary staff to eliminate the backlog, saying the approach has had little impact in part due to high levels of turnover as people look for more stable jobs.
The result is that not only has Veterans Affairs largely failed to eliminate the backlog, it has been unable to even keep up with the claims that continue to stream into the department.
“They can’t address the backlog, let alone keep up with the increased demand,” Hogan told reporters. “So it really is time to have a more stable, long-term view of how to process these applications.”
While the auditor general did not specify what a long-term plan would look like, she did emphasize ensuring Veterans Affairs has enough resources — including permanent staff — to keep up with the continued influx of claims.
“It’s time to find a more sustainable solution that will see veterans receive their benefits in a timely way,” she said. “After all, it is our veterans who are here to take care of and protect our country and keep peace. The government should do better by them.”
Brian Forbes, chairman of both The War Amps executive committee and the National Council of Veteran Associations, which represents 68 organizations across Canada, said Hogan’s “has cemented what we’ve been saying for years.”
Forbes was hopeful Hogan’s report would finally spur the government into action, including the automatic approval of veterans’ disability claims with an audit function to catch cheaters.
“Ninety-six per cent of post-traumatic stress claims are approved in the end and 86 per cent of moderate to serious disabled veterans’ claims are approved,” Forbes said in an interview.
“Why are we procrastinating on entitlements when those are the facts? Why can’t we just move to an automatic entitlement and allow these people to get their treatment benefits and allow them to get their health-care benefits?”
The hope for a concrete plan was echoed by Royal Canadian Legion dominion president Bruce Julian, whose service officers are responsible for helping veterans collect and fill out the onerous paperwork needed to apply for disability benefits.
“We’ve seen the despair and anger from veterans and families as situations worsen,” Julian said in a statement.
“We hope this report will finally provide the impetus needed to create and execute a concrete plan of action, end unreasonable wait times, and duly serve the injured Veterans who served us.”
Yet MacAulay suggested the temporary staff and other measures are actually having an impact, saying the number of claims that have been sitting in the queue longer than the department’s target of 16 weeks has shrunk since the audit.
Such numbers are suspect, however, which Hogan noted in her report as the clock often doesn’t start running when a claim is filed and can end weeks before it is fully processed — a problem that MacAulay acknowledged and promised to fix.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2022.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia‘s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
